This game is comming out in Feb. Anyone who likes final fantasy type games should check it out.

"Lost Odyssey is a truly next-generation RPG created by acclaimed artists Takehiko Inoue (Japanese manga creator, made famous by Slam Dunk), Kiyoshi Shigematsu (a famous Japanese novelist) and Nobuo Uematsu (Japanese music composer, known for creating the music for the FINAL FANTASY series of games). The game is produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the original FINAL FANTASY series.

Lost Odyssey's storyline takes the player through Kaim's life, a man who has been sentenced to live for 1,000 years. He lives through multiple generations, becomes a part of many families, falls in and out of love and gets into conflicts. All this is set in a world that is on the verge of a mystical industrial revolution, where mankind has attained dark powers. "



Also, several other good games will be comming out in 2008. They are at least worth a rent if not a buy.

That one looks good, I'll be sure to check it out in Feb.

It looks cool, but I'm kind of scared of all of the reading that's supposedly in the game. I don't mind reading, but it seems like a book and a video game shouldn't necessarily be the same thing. Who am I kidding, though? Of course I'll buy it. The music in the trailer from a long time ago pretty much has me sold.

Did you play Blue Dragon? I figure I'll get it at some point, even though the reviews weren't the strongest.

I haven't played Blue Dragon, I'm an RPG fan but unless the game gets good reviews I don't normally buy them.

Yeah, I'm waiting for it to be cheap enough that I won't feel ripped off if it doesn't bowl me over. I actually think I would enjoy it enough. I'm sure there are a lot of games I would enjoy that I'm letting slip by me just because the reviews weren't high enough.

I played the BD demo and was not completely impressed. To be honest, I have not really played any of the turnbased RPG games on the 360.. or any new system really.

I did love the old school turnbasd RPG's on nintendo such as:

final fantasy I
dragon warrior
dungeon magic
swords and serpants, ect.

I would like to give blue dragon another try, along with eternal sonata and enchanted arms.

I played the demo for eternal sonata and it seemed pretty fun.


Anyway, I thought that lost odyssey looked like a pretty good game... even if it does come on 4 discs!

I enjoyed Enchanted Arms, not my favorite game but fun anyhow.

I am interested in checking out this game. It is turn based combat right? That is something that I find pretty fun and strategic.

I'll see what the reviews are like on this one in North America.

Yes it is turn based. I read in a preview somewhere that they have done some things to enhance the turnbased style a bit... not sure exactly what though

Did anyone pick up Lost Odyssey yet? I think I still might, but it would have been easier if the reviews were generally a little higher. I had it preordered on Amazon.com, and then I changed my mind about preordering. However, Amazon.com still sent me a code for use with Xbox Live Marketplace that you get by preordering. It gives you an extra weapon and dream, apparently.

But yeah, I'm interested in any impressions people here have.

I was going to dig up this thread soon. I got it for valentines day and just started playing it. I never pay too much attention to reviewers. If everyone gives something a 1/10 or a 10/10 you can be pretty sure that the game sucks or is great. anything in between is kind of just their personal preference.

I am about 2 hours in and was going to wait a little longer to post my initial impressions. I will give it a quick rundown though.

So far the game seems really cool. Bottom line if you like turn based RPGS you will like this game. If you don't, you won't.

I wasn't sure if I still liked turn based games anymore or not. Back in the day I loved games like Final fantasy I, dungeon magic, dragon warrior ect. (all of these were on the NES.)

I am finding that I still do enjoy a nice turn based game. So far the game has been a little slow. (I read some stuff from other people that are 10+ hours into the game and said the first couple of hours are slow.)

There are a lot of cut scenes and a lot of reading. Things happen along the way that jog Kaim's memory and he has a 'dream' of his memory. These are basically cool little stories that you have the option to read or not. Even without reading these stories you do a lot of reading in the game though. If you elect to skip them you can always access them from the menu and read them later. The stories have some background effects that go along with the reading so It's kind of neat. For example you have a memory about something that happened in a tavern. YOu hear the door shut as you read about walking in to the tavern, and you can hear all the patrons drinking/talking in the background. Again, you can skip these if you want and I don't think you really miss out on the story because most of it is told through cut scenes.

The ring system is pretty cool so far from what I can tell. You can collect components from all over the place and build rings that have different attributes. I just learned level 2 black magic and the spells are pretty neat.

You have to use some strategy in how you set up your character for battle. The guys in the front row will shield the guys in the back row so you have to pick who will be taking the most damage.

So far there is a good selection of enemies (however,I have not had that many battles yet since I am just getting out of the main town.) I am sure the enemies will be repeated a lot as I progress through the game... but for now it seems like there is a good variety.

Some of your characters are immortals and some are mortals. The mortals can learn new skills but the immortals cannot. You have to link the skill from the mortal to the immortal... so basically you will have to balance out the number of immmortals and mortalas that you have set up for a battle. Right now I only have three people so it is not an issue (you get up to five for a battle.)

I think if you can handle a good amount of reading and cutscenes, and like turnbased games with a really well developed story you will love this game. If not, steer clear.


Anyway, I will post some more later (I am about to go play it right now, and have been dying to do so since I was playing it last night and started falling asleep on the couch because it was getting late.)

It sounds like a game I would enjoy. I also loved turn-based RPGs from the NES era, and I think it's time to play another. Thanks for the impressions!

Some more discussion on it can be found at the xbox forums.

This thread has some more impressions of people a little further into the game:

http://forums.xbox.com/17261429/ShowPost.aspx

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the sound is really good in this game so far. Sound effects/music are top notch, and the american voice acting is really good.

I've stayed away for now, I read the loading times were way slow.

I have found the loading times to be fine so far. There is a little bit of a lag/stutter when you enter battles but it's not too bad- nothing to turn me off of the game.

The load times in oblivion are WAY longer then on this game.

I think that a more valid complaint is that loading occurs fairly frequently. However, the load times are not that long.

I think the devs wanted to put stuff on the hard drive to reduce the ammount of loading required but microsoft wanted everyone with a 360 (even the ones with a crappy memory card instead of a hard drive) to be able to play the game the same way... go figure.


anyway- I would suggest that you rent the game or something and see for yourself... because I don't think the load times are too bad at all.

Xbox 360 sucks donkey feet...

replace "feet" with whatever you deem appropriate.

I just got the three rings of death for the 3rd time. This means that microshaft is going to send me my 4th xbox 360, and I will be without a console for another 4 weeks.

I am on hold with someone in india who speaks very poor english. I am waiting to speak with their supervisor who probably speaks even worse english... They could learn something rom axiom customer support!
Anyway- no more updates on lost odyssey for a while now..

Ouch, that's rough. Hopefully it happens faster, somehow. Bad timing.

I did get about 5 hours in before it crapped out on me. I took a break for about 4 hours and then MY girlfriend played 2 guitar hero songs and when I tried to fire up the ol 360 it was blinking 3 red lights at me.

customer support offered me a choice of project gotham racing 3, kameo, viva pinata, or xbox live arcade collection 1 for my trouble.

I told them those games sucked and they sent me PGR3 the first time my xbox died and that they send me kameo the second. I told them I wanted a different game and he said in his kwik-E mart voice "That is all we have"

I said "ok then I will take all four." He said no... I opted for the arcade games. it comes with 6 games... 2 of which I already have (geometry wars and texas holdem.) Bejewled will be ok I guess... I figure my girlfriend will like that game better than viva pinata

Anyway... Heres to hoping he understood me when I requested expedited shipping due to the fact that they are going to be sending me my FOURTH repair console.

I guess now is a good time to go watch fear and loathing on HD DVD... THANKS CV!!!

oh yeah.. I am REALLY liking lost odyssey now.

Speaking of dead 360s, mine's been boxed up in my car for the last three weeks. It's been freezing like crazy and I keep waiting for any of the Best Buys in the area to stock the Elite so I can trade it in. Waiting. . .

In the meantime, I bought a PS3.

Bejeweled 2 Deluxe is eeeeevil. It's the only 360 game I played more than Oblivion. But I think I'm still #1 on the leaderboard for one mode, and still fairly high up on a couple other modes. I went back and forth with one guy on both Action and Hyper for a while, but I was getting too stressed out by the game and had to retire. Ha ha.

That's too bad they couldn't give you something better.

It's so weird that they aren't getting the Elites in stock. That's messed up.

Dude, tell me about it. I got tired of asking when they'll expect more. "The best thing to do is come in when we get our trucks. I don't see any on order, so maybe next week."

ya, well at least the arcade disc comes with 1 month free of live and I guess microsoft is handing out 1 month of live free with the console repair so whats that.. like $12 bucks for my trouble?

Also, I just read that they make you put that arcade disc in the dvd drive to play the arcade games... I was hoping that you could just install them onto the hard drive from the disc... That is kind of crappy but hey... beggars can't be choosers right?

Maybe I will luck out and they will send my an HDMI xbox in return. I bet they have a hole mountain of non-hdmi boxes that they are trying to solder back together just for me. I will just continue the endless cycle of sending in consoles just to get another defective unit that will break in 6 months.


about the elite: maybe with the premium version getting the hdmi there is not much demand for the elite. The bigger hard drive is nice but not really needed unless you download tv shows and movies, or a lot of game demo's at a time.

Maybe they were going to surprise everyone with built-in HD DVD drives, and now they have to switch them out.

I wonder how much of the $1 billion they've set aside for the repairs they've gone through so far. They're probably trying to stretch it as much as possible.

I can't remember the details, but I vaguely recall a newer version of the 360 should be forthcoming. Maybe that's why no more Elites.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about the contest between Microsoft and Sony to see who can have the most versions of their console.

Next Xbox 360 Designs are 'Jasper', 'Opus' and 'Valhalla'
>> From seattlepi.nwsource.com:

I think Microsoft should make a single version--one that works.

yeah, and they should send it to me first!

It's nice to hear they're improving the hardware and making it more efficient, but is it just me, or does it seem like Sony is already outpacing them in this? Even with a year's head start, it's going to be hard for Microsoft to compete with Sony in hardware cost reduction. Not that it matters. They're both trying for second place. When they both said they were going for a different market than Nintendo, they probably didn't think it was going to be a smaller market.

I think the Wii will be collecting dust at a lot of people's homes. I know several people that are bored of it already. The controller sucks for most games, and the mini games/ sports games get old after a while IMO.

well I'm outta here. off to go stare at my lost oddysey case.

I'm in agreement on the Wii. I love Nintendo and their first-party franchises, but the Wii leaves a lot to be desired for most hardcore gamers, and most of the people who are buying it get it because of the buzz, then after a few times they're done with it.

Have fun with your meaningful gazing.

But at least the Wii stays working for most people.

I look at the Wii as the stepping stone to the 360 or PS3 as a fair number of people buying the Wii are first time purchasers of a gaming console.

Yah, microsoft currently has the most unreliable gaming console I have ever seen. If it wasn't for the great selection of games and friends I have accumulated on xbox live over the years I would jump ship and buy a PS3. Oh well.. now I wait.

back on topic: I think lost odyssey is a really good game, and not being able to play it now is driving me nuts! The game is a really good classic style RPG.

Maybe I will fire up my modded xbox 1 and play some final fantasy 3 or something on my X-NES emulator to kill some time

Yeah, the Xbox 360 set records in unreliability. I thought the PS2 was bad, but Microsoft wasn't content being second-best at being the worst. Nintendo's systems have been pretty much at the top for reliability, but it seems like more people are having issues with the Wii than with the Gamecube. At least, I've seen mentions of issues a couple of times, where I don't really remember reading anything about the Gamecube in that regard. The PS3 also seems very solid, which surprises me. Here's hoping Microsoft has learned their lesson and won't try to rush the design next time.

That being said, I've found a lot more games I like playing on the 360. The two bad things are the reliability and the pricing of content on Xbox Live Marketplace. Some stuff is reasonable, but promotional items like themes and gamerpics should not be charged for. I know they're in the hole with the Xbox brand, but it's not our fault. It feels like we're paying for their bad decisions. Anyway, I still get a lot of enjoyment out of my 360, and I'm crossing my fingers for the next generation.

I spoke with customer support today and Got an address that I can mail to and complain. I am going to send a letter to both the address provided and the repair center and explain my situation.

I feel like I should be entitled to a new xbox360- the ones with the revised motherboards that have the 65nm cpu instead of the 90nm cpu, and all the other changes that have reduced overheating and improved reliability. I am going to explain to them that they are sending me my 4th xbox, and I feel like these refurbed xenon mobo's are just ticking time bombs. I am stuck in and endless loop of console repair- and I will be as long as they keep giving me the original refurbed xenon mobo. The new motherboards that have been designed to be more reliable will not fit into my existing case, so I feel like they should provide me an entire new xbox. If this was the first RROD I have had I would not expect them to do this, but maybe they will cut me some slack since This has been a repeated issue.

I guess they have millions of v1.0 xenon cases laying around that they have to use up though right?

I guess one of the new mobo's they are making is designed to fit in a 1.0 case and has a 65nm cpu and a 65gpu that will hopefully end the endless refurb loop... but that won't be out until late 08 or early 09.

At the very least I am receiving expedited shipping(which really must mean they just walk faster to mail it off b/c it will still be the standard 3-5 days for my empty shipping box to arrive), a free game, and 2 months of xbox live.

I will prolly get a free wireless controller too, but the guy said he can't mail it out until after they receive my console.

I am 99% sure my letter won't make any difference but I still am going to write it. If I didn't like the selection of games on the 360 so much and have friends on xboxlive that I have played with for a couple of years I would buy a PS3 and tell them to shove it.

The first time I had to return my Xbox to Best Buy (the loading tray wouldn't come out) I started talking to the girl at the return counter and she said she sees some of the same customers every month bringing 360s back. I'd like to know how many each store ships back to Microsoft on a monthly basis.

well for some reason the empty repair box is being sent to my old address in stillwater, OK.

I specifically told them I needed to change my address, and just to be sure I asked what address the box would be shipped to and the they repeated the CORRECT address to me. I have no idea how these morons managed to send it to the old address.

I am on hold with customer support again (Surprise) to get this issue straightened out. I told them I want 2 day or overnight shipping on the empty box to me, the x-box to the repair center, and the repaired box back to me rather than the 3-5 day shipping for all three trips. The guy said they do expedited shipping on your 4th repair. (are you F'ing kidding me?!?!?) We will see if they will be nice and expedite my order since it is merely only the 3rd time my xbox has broke.

(as you can see I HATE dealing with crappy customer support reps GRRRRRR)

[/rant]

If I didn't have so many games for the 360, I'dve given up on the darn thing already.

Hang in there, terzaghi.

I just spoke with a supervisor that I could actually understand, and he was pretty nice too.

They will overnight the empty box to me but he could not arrange for overnight shipment from my house to the repair center. He put a note on the order to request overnight shipping from the repair center to my house but he said that is ultimately up to the repair center.

Also, The box they are sending me is a bigger box that I put in both the console and the power supply (as opposed to the smaller boxes that only fit the console.) He said there is a chance that I will get a newer unit (the ones they currently sell at stores) which would be more reliable. The HDMI boxes have a new power supply then the old xboxes, so I am hoping that is why they wanted my power supply

Anyway, he gave me a choice of lots of accessories- memory unit, wireless controller, vision camera, quick charge kit, or play and charge kit for my troubles. I opted for the wireless controller. (I nearly changed to the memory unit b/c it is $49 at walmart vs the $40 controller), but I don't see myself using a memory unit much.

They were going to give me that arcade game package with the first order so I may still get that too (if it comes to the right address)

Anyway- all in all it seems like I got connected to a better supervisor who actually tried to help me out....


He still quoted me a total time of 3-4 weeks for repair and transit... maybe it will be faster though

I didn't like having 666 posts

Update:

I checked the tracking number for my empty box that is supposed to be overnighted to me. Well it is getting overnighted allright...

Overnighted STRAIGHT TO THE REPAIR CENTER!.

The idiots put the label that they were supposed to send me IN the box ON the outside of the box instead... so they are overnighting an empty box to the repair center!
It was obviously supposed to be overnighted to me first, and then I put in my console BEFORE it goes to the repair center... seems logical to me...?!?!

on hold with customer support AGAIN!
GRRRRR.


As angry as I am... I can't help but laugh at their stupidity

Wow, I feel for ya. I'm currently on my 3rd 360 so can only imagine what you are currently going through. I'm glad to see you can find some humor in it though. Im laughing a bit myself reading about these ridiculous events that seem to just pile on top of each other. Hang in there, and at least you got a story out of it...maybe.

Terz, you take some solice in the fact they will have to pay for another overnight charge to ship it to you.

that is what I was thinking... They have paid for 1 reg shipment and 1 extra overnight charge!

The world would be a much better place if all customer support was as good as axioms!

I picked up Lost Odyssey and Assasins Creed today, I'll give them a play sometime this weekend, The K-Mart I went to up here (only retail store that sells games within 50 miles) was clearing the Xbox HD add on for $49.00 but still selling the HD DVD's for $29.00

I got Lost Odyssey a little earlier this week. I'm not far in at all, so I have no idea if I'll get into the story or not.

cool, hopefully you'll like the game. I'd say it was after about 4-5 hours of play that I really started digging the story and the game and appreciating the 'back to the roots' style of gameplay.

I guess I really liked Lost Odyssey, played it from 10:00 pm until 3:00 am last night.

Now hopefully I can get my xbox back up and running soon.

According to xbox.com my xbox will be sent back to me pretty soon.

OK, time for an update here.

Microsoft customer support really stepped it up a notch on this one.

Depsite sending the empty box to the wrong place(twice) and having to spend an hour or more on the phone (cumulatively) everything went really smooth. Also The empty box they sent to the repair center made it's way to my house finally. I will keep it for next time my xbox craps out on me... IT has a blank overnight shipping label ready to go.

The first customer service rep I spoke with refused to expedite anything and I was going to be stuck with 3-5 day shipping 3 times plus a 2 week repair time.

The second (or third?) person I spoke with pulled some strings and got everything expedited for me.

Once They got my address right it was a really fast process. The empty box was shipped on wednesday, I received it on Thursday. I shipped it to the repair center on Thursday, They received it on Friday. Today (monday)they are overnighting a console to me from harligen Texas which is 26 miles from mexico. I will receive my xbox by 3:00pm Tuesday. The guy from fed ex said the package came from mexico originally so I may be getting a new console. (usually repairs come back from McAllen TX)

Also, While the majority of the customer support people had fairly poor english I must add that they speak English WAY better than I can speak any other languages....

So... it looks like I am going to eat my words about how crappy the customer support was. Way to go microsoft! (now if you could just keep the console working for more than 3 months.)

Also- I mentioned this before but I got a free wireless controller, a free arcage unplugged game (with 6 arcade games) and 2 free months of xbox live.

I see myself playing lost odyssey tomorrow night!

Great news. I'm crossing my fingers for you on getting a brand new unit.

I probably won't but it would be nice. (HDMI would be kind of neat)

Regardless of what I get, I just hope it works and is more reliable! Have you got to play LO much yet?

No, I still haven't played anymore, but I may go put in some time tonight.

I'm losing to much sleep because of that game. But I'm really enjoying playing it, I would say it can be kind of addictive.

Yes, I do believe so.

I think it is one of those games that you don't want to end...

Luckily I am only 5 hours in on disk one still- so plenty of play time left